Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The rules-based world order is under unprecedented strain, buffeted by geopolitical competition, economic inequality, populist nationalism, technological innovation, transnational threats, and a planetary ecological emergency. Carnegie’s Global Order and Institutions Program analyzes the shifting landscape of international cooperation and identifies promising new multilateral initiatives and institutions to advance a more peaceful, prosperous, just, and sustainable world.
Areas of programmatic focus will include:
Global order depends not only on a stable balance of power but also on some baseline agreement among nations on fundamental principles, norms, and rules of conduct. We will analyze major points of convergence and divergence among established and emerging powers in their visions of world order, as well as strategies to expand voice and representation from the Global South in international institutions.
Recent years have seen novel experiments in international cooperation that go far beyond the United Nations system. These range from flexible, informal coalitions to multistakeholder arrangements to transnational networks of cities and states/provinces. We will examine the trade-offs these various institutional arrangements pose for global problem solving.
While neoliberal economic orthodoxy has generated great wealth, it has also increased inequality, hollowed out community, and despoiled the environment. Our team fosters North-South dialogue on reimagined rules and institutions of global economic governance capable of delivering equitable, inclusive, and sustainable growth and providing global public goods.
The global commons are physical domains that exist outside the sovereign jurisdiction of any one nation but upon which all depend. The two most important global commons, outer space and the high seas, have become increasingly congested, conflictual, and competitive. We will consider how to update multilateral rules to ensure the openness and stability of the commons.
The current global order has failed to prevent runaway climate change and biodiversity collapse, threatening human well-being and even survival. Reversing these trends will require governing the world as if the Earth mattered. In collaboration with other Carnegie experts, we will explore how to bring the multilateral system into line with planetary ecological realities.
The global democratic recession and the rise of authoritarian populism have reduced domestic support in many nations for international organizations and law. In collaboration with other Carnegie experts, we will examine the linkage between these phenomena and strategies to strengthen democratic support for—and democratic accountability of—multilateral institutions.
The Global Order and Institutions Program is directed by Stewart Patrick.